Hawaii Five-O
golden
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I was flipping through the channels yesterday and came across a two part episode of Hawaii Five -O. It was " F.O.B. Honolulu " Season 3 , episode 18. It was about a set of " perfect " counterfeit plates for a U.S. $20. Agents from Russia and China were trying to get them to destroy the U.S. economy. It was a numismatic theme with drama, intrigue , foreign agents and a girl in a bikini. What more could you ask for? A very cool episode.
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"The $100,000 Nickel" was the name of the episode about the 1913 Liberty Nickel, shot with a genuine example.
Wish I could have seen that episode.
I remember that episode. Back before On Demand etc. so you saw it or you didn't.
As I recall, they had to train the cast on the "do's and don'ts" about handling the genuine coin on the close-up shots. I think this was the first coin that sold for over $100,000, around 1973.
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Remember seeing that episode years ago !!!
If you google "Hawaii Five O nickel" you'll see a number of video copies of the episode, including this one:
Hawaii Five-O $100,000 Nickel episode
Book em Danno!
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Here is a prior post of mine relevant to the above:
This has been an interesting thread. I was sure by this point someone would have commented on the Life imitates Art aspect though with regard to similarities to the Hawaii Five-O coin heist show from the original series. Like the OP's real life account, a female assistant provided the distraction that gave the opportunity for the thief to lift the coin in the TV show as well.
In the 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-0 titled, "The $100,000 Dollar Nickel" (which was based on the theft of the Olsen Specimen of the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel that had just set the record for the price paid for a single coin the year prior in 1972), there was an interesting parallel to the real life theft subject of this thread. In both cases the coin(s) were stolen at a coin show by a thief who used a distraction. In the fictional TV episode the con artist's attractive wife provides the distraction as character Arnie Price examines a dealer's coins at the coin show being held in Waikiki's Ilikai Hotel.
For any not familiar with the celebrity history of this coin, as above noted it was the first coin to sell for $100,000. In 2010 it was sold to an undisclosed party for the sum of $3,737,500.
Edited to add:
More recently Heritage Auctions posted this with regard to 2014's FUN:
"A legendary rare nickel that was made under mysterious circumstances and was unknown to even exist for many years is coming back in the spotlight.
The Olsen specimen 1913 Liberty Head nickel, sometimes known as the "Hawaii Five-O" specimen because of its featured appearance in an episode of that popular television program, will be offered in the Heritage Auctions U.S. Signature Coin Auction at the Florida United Numismatists Convention in Orlando, Jan. 8-12, 2014.
It is graded NGC PR64, and Heritage officials estimate it will sell for $3.5 to $4.25 million.
Even though Heritage has not yet issued any formal news release about its upcoming auction, collectors already are inquiring about this internationally famous coin.
"We have received serious inquiries from dealers and collectors, including at least one collector from Asia and another from Europe, who are interested in acquiring the Olsen 1913 Liberty Head nickel," revealed Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President of Heritage."
Despite getting a green CAC sticker, it actually sold for less in the 2014 FUN Auction with a reported price of $3,290,000 - though that may well have been a sale back to the consigner.
This from Coin Update:
Hawaii Five-O 1913 Liberty Nickel Realizes $3,290,000
January 9, 2014 By Dennis Hengeveld
"The 2014 Florida United Numismatists Convention held in Orlando, Florida included an auction conducted by Heritage Auctions. While almost every type of United States coinage was offered at the auction there were a number of single coins that led the sale. One of these, no doubt, was the Olsen specimen of the 1913 Liberty Nickel. Graded PF-64 by NGC and considered to be second finest of just five specimens known to have been struck and known to exist, the coin realized a final price of $3,290,000 including buyer’s premium. The coin, which is famous for appearing in a 1973 episode of the series “Hawaii-Five-O” had last sold at public auction in January of 2010, when it realized $3,737,500."
Here is my photo of the Hawaii Five-O 1913 Liberty Head Nickel from a viewing of it at a Portland ANA show:
FWIW, here are some shots of my own appearance on the current version of Hawaii Five-0:
As a point of trivia, that last photographed scene was included again in a subsequent year's Halloween themed episode when Detective Danno was driving up to a party his teenage daughter was attending. I am probably the only one in the viewing audience who recognized the reuse of the same footage.
(While payment was made for the original use of the car there were no residuals consequent from its repeated inclusion.
) 
And to keep this coin related, I actually wrote an account that paid homage to the "Hundred Thousand Dollar Nickel" episode from the original Hawaii Five-O series. If it ends up getting published, apart from the proposed teleplay, I will come back to edit this post by adding a link.
This is the episode I remember.
POST NUBILA PHOEBUS / AFTER CLOUDS, SUN
Love for Music / Collector of Dreck
I have not seen any of these programs.... just not much for TV other than current events or the political scene.
It is very interesting though, that they used the real nickel in an episode.... I bet there was a special insurance policy on it for that event. A lot of things can happen on a movie set... a couple of my friends spent some years as stunt actors, and they had some interesting stories. Cheers, RickO
I remember one scene where the nickel was spent in a newspaper vending machine in order to get rid of it in a hurry. I hope that they substituted another coin for this scene.
The 1973 "Hawaii Five-O" 1913 Liberty Nickel episode, the "The $100,000 Nickel" is one of the best television programs featuring coins.
However, no 1913 nickels were used in filming the program.
The only real 1913 nickel shown was a still photograph from the recent coin auction which established the price used in the title.
Real 1903 and 1910 nickels were used as prop coins in the program but these are not rare coins.
Hawaii Five-O scene with 1910 Liberty Nickel
Some photographs of other rare coins were used, they came from professional coin dealers who were credited at the end of the program.
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I am not disputing your account, but I do recall one shot where the nickel was on a granite bar with other assorted pocket change. I had no illusions that they filmed that on site. It was an extreme closeup.
Presumably the training the actors got on the proper handling of coins was to lend an air of authenticity in the scenes where they handled the prop coins.
The only scene in the Hawaii Five-O episode where a nickel is on a granite bar is in the coin forger's shop.
It is a 1903 nickel being altered by using a soldering iron to cover the '0' with a '1'.
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I could be wrong on the granite, but isn't there a scene where the lost nickel ends up given back as change?
Inasmuch as the "still photograph from the recent coin auction" was included in the show that would have been the "Hawaii Five-0 Nickel" so it was technically in fact a "1913 nickel used in filming the program."
My photograph of it that I took at the ANA show in Portland before it was subsequently reholderd shows the Hawaii Five-0 attribution.
OK, a question..... has anyone actually watched the 1913 nickel episode recently?
I posted above that I recalled that there was a scene where the 1913 nickel was returned in change and was shown in closeup among some other coins. I have not seen the episode in over 40 years but my recollection was that the coin got spent and by chance the crooks got it back in change. One or two people disputed that recollection, and @Flatwoods even saw fit to ding me with a "disagree".
Well, I just found a Cointalk post from several years ago that had a scene by scene breakdown of the show, and one of the scenes was exactly as I recalled it. Unfortunately, the pictures were stripped off the old thread, but the synopsis of the scene mentions the nickel as well as a 1968 half dollar, so the shot must have shown the coins. The coin in that scene was the real coin, not the counterfeit one. Now, I don't know in real life if they used the real nickel for that photo, but in the story it was the real one.
I will try to watch the episode sometime but I was interested to know if anyone else has actually seen it recently.
I have the episode on my website under "Coins on Television".
It has the pictures and text from the old CoinTalk post.
There is a scene in the program with a 1913 nickel and a 1968 half dollar laying on a table.
Coins on the table
It looks like a photograph of the coin given to the show's production company.
On another topic, I can not find any information on an actual theft of the Olsen coin.
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>
Your grin is noted so I assume you already appreciated that the theft subject of the "Life Imitates Art" reference in my initial post on this thread was the topic of a thread concerning coins stolen from a coin dealer at a coin show where a similar modus operandi was used by the thieves. To my knowledge Larry Briggs did not have an Olsen coin as among those stolen from him.
@WillieBoyd2 Thx for that photo, but what the heck???
In an earlier post you had said that there was only one shot of the real coin, and was from the real auction. I had responded that I recalled it being shown with some other coins on a granite countertop (sorry if I got the material incorrect). You disputed that recollection, but now you are posting the exact photo that I was describing!
That photo is EXACTLY as I recalled it from over 40 years ago. Furthermore, I think I recall from an article in Coin World at the time that this photo IS the real coin, specially photographed for the scene (obviously not on site).
I don't understand how your earlier posts and responses can be reconciled with your latest post, which confirms and vindicates my recollections.
BTW, you would think that if they were going to pose a half dollar with such a superstar nickel they would have used one that did not look like it had been cleaned wirh a pencil eraser.
You can watch this episode on VUDU for $1.99 at the following address:
https://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/262199/Hawaii-Five-O-Classic-The-100000-Nickel
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@JBK My apologies for the disagree.
I must have hit it by accident. I do that on my phone sometimes.
I never even opened this thread on purpose!
If I can figure out how to remove it I will.
I just saw where you gave me a retaliatory disagree. I appreciate it.
I love this new software. Everyone can act like 2 yr. olds.
I was just playing by your rules. Don't post an actual comment or response, just hit disagree whenever you see things differently. If you change your strategy, so will I, since I am not a fan of stealth disagreeing.
Differently? I havent even read any posts in this thread.
@Flatwoods You are posting responses and hitting buttons in a thread where you haven't read any posts?
Anyway. I see that you don't even have any disagrees on your record, so what are we even discussing?
Carry on.